I too see a lot of Apple stuff floating around on campus. I was surprised to find out how many Mac enthusiasts there are in the Computer Science student body. However, most of the profs are Microsoft thru and thru. Must be all that free software and kickbacks.
I just ordered an iBook last night and now they are dropping prices. What Luck!!! Fortunately they let me cancel my order and reorder. So now I get what I really wanted for the same price as before...
Union Pacific has a jet powered locomotive. They used to have more, but they burn so much fuel that they aren't very economical to operate. Plus, you can't park them underneath overpasses because the exhaust will melt the asphalt. So they just have the one now and it is mainly used for special loads and public relations.
Amen brother! This chick never has anything good to say about the products she reviews. She nitpicks even the smallest details that most people would never even notice.
I am using SuSE 8.0 Personal Edition and I think it would be a very good distro for newbies. It detects everything automagically, even my USB camera. My only real gripe is the lack of good CD burning software included in the package. I hear this is fixed in 8.1 though.
And Amen also to the installer comments. My main problem with the Redhat installer is that it is linear and much harder to fix mistakes without having to start over.
I say to everyone, give SuSE a try. It's pretty damn cool, especially for newbies, and has a little something in it for everyone.
I have a T-bird 1 GHz and 768MB of SDRAM. The ram is just overkill (but I got a good deal) and the T-bird was kinda high end when I bought it almost two years ago. I enjoy building computers, but I decided there's simply no reason to get the latest and greatest because my setup does everything I need it to do.
Also, I work for a computer manufacturer and I have noticed that most of the systems we build use the lowest or next to lowest processors we offer. So consumers are definately wising up.
I think we've reached a plateau in personal computer performance. The big thing now is internet bandwidth. I think that is where people are going to be putting their money in the next few years.
I believe most code is simply not commented properly. I have been trying for a while to teach myself to do some basic stuff in Python with little success. The main problem is that most code is poorly commented if it is commented at all. There is no telling how many times I've seen things like this:
# Now we tie up some loose ends
or
# I inserted this to fix a few things
No explaination is given as to what the code actually does or if it does explain, it doesn't tell specifically what is going on. I know that most programmers aren't writing comments for the sake of students trying to learn from their code, but I believe if they did so, things would be much clearer for everyone.
Having built the Inspiron (and Latitude) for a year, I know that you don't want to mess around too much under the hood of one of these things. If you improperly seat the video card, the pins on the connector can be bent very easily. Also, an improperly seated heatsink can cause literal meltdown (and a not too pleasant smell). And when you're putting it all back together, don't forget to plug the LCD back in:)
I have at least one Geology professor that uses Fortran. Although I'm completely unfamiliar with this language, it seems to serve his purposes very well. And so do the apps he writes because they still work 15+ years later. Plus, I can just get a copy of the source and use them at home on my Linux system with a minimum of fuss. Portability is a big plus in my opinion.
My mother is a Technology Coordinator at a local school system. This means she is in charge of researching and purchasing computer resources for the school. I've been campaigning for her to persuade the administration to switch from using Microsoft products to free Unix products. While it would certainly make economic sense to do this, there are two things standing in her way. 1: The school administration is fearful of anything that is not Microsoft. 2: There is little or no local support for Linux or BSD products. This means that there are no companies in her area that provide hands-on support for free software. My suggestion was that they could use the tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of dollars per year that they spend on MS taxes to hire a nerd full-time. I know that some school systems are beginning to do this, but at the school where my mother works, the administration won't hear of such a thing. They want a local company that can provide support, warranties, and guarantees. So my tax dollars continue to go towards making MS a bigger monopoly. Which leads me to another thought. Does anyone know how much money MS makes off the United States governments (Federal, State, and Local)??
I work in a manufacturing environment that requires the use of several pieces of software. I can open 3 Internet Explorers, 2 terminal emulators, and 1 label printing application before NT crashes and burns. I would be very happy to get some added RAM and CPU power.
Yes they did offer Linux. I used to work in Inspiron and Latitude Manufacturing and I'd see a Linux system once or twice a week when they were still offering it. I never saw any multiple orders for Linux systems from the same company, they were all single orders, probably for sys-admins or Redhat enthusiasts.
So let me see, that's 2 a week out of 10,000 systems that came through on my shift and there were 2 shifts so let's say 5 out of 20,000 to be safe. So 0.025% of the systems had Linux installed. Believe me, I was excited that Dell was offering Linux, even if it was Redhat. But I think I agree with sluggish sales as a valid reason. The numbers don't lie.
I tend to be looking for specific information. For a simple topic search I tend to use Yahoo!. Since I am looking for specific information when using Google, it is nothing for me to have to look through 5 to 10 pages of results before I find a site with the information I need. If someone is looking at a site based on the fact that it is near the top of the list, then they are a fool and deserve to be mislead by Google bombing.
CompUSA's humorous lack of security
on
iWarez
·
· Score: 1
My local CompUSA store doesn't bother to protect their Macs in any form or fashion. It's great for those of use who like to play around with the OS or search for info on products via the Internet, but maybe not great for them as this case proves. I've thought about screwing with settings and trying to crash their display models.. but I decided that that would just be mean.
I don't understand why this is a big deal. I mean, these guys gotta make money somehow. Besides, if you're going to a web site based on the fact that it was listed first by the search engine, then whatever you're researching probably isn't that important. And if I am looking for information on quantum mechanics and the search engine only lists links to chemistry sets at Wal-Mart, then I'm going to use another search engine. I think most people are smart enough to figure this sort of thing out.
If the price of the PC goes below $350 (yeah right), the the "Microsoft Tax" will still be included in the price. I work for a very large computer manufacturer and I'm sure they get Windows for our machines at a bulk price, but it is still a substantial part of the purchase price. The computer prices are falling (at least at my company), but they are also reducing margins per computer. It's call a price war and it was brought on by slumping PC sales. So computer companies are selling for less, but they are making less per computer and it has nothing to do with the price of components or whatnot, it's simply capitalism (competition) at its best. So as soon as demand goes back up, so will the prices and all Microsoft will know is that more units are being shipped and they are making more money. Being a monopoly, they can charge as much as they want and the middlemen (i.e. computer manufacturers) just have to deal with it.
What exactly is a chord keyset? To me it looked as if the gentleman was using it to issue commands. I wish that something similar had been introduced into the PC. I know that I find it hard to remember keyboard shortcuts. Having a separate tool for this that had 5 or 6 keys would make a great addition the the PC platform and would make it easier for me to remember which buttons to push. Or maybe I'm just crazy.
I'm a soon to be former Comcast Online (used to be @Home) subscriber and they are charging me $70 a month including the modem rental fee. I said soon to be former because I find this price to be too much per month. Additionally, since they have switch over to the new service, everything is slower and tech support is non-exsistant. The actual monthly fee is supposed to be $39.99, but when you figure in modem rental, taxes, franchise fees, etc, etc, etc, the price ups to $70 a month. It's nice to have bandwidth, but not $70 nice.
But usually i go looking for freeware or gpl stuff nowadays. I don't think I am using any shareware at this point. Just too much trouble and there are almost always free alternatives that are just as good or better.
I noticed on kernel.org that there are now listings for the 2.0.xx kernels (sorry if I'm behind the times, I don't check the site every day). Is anyone out there still using the 2.0.xx kernel (or earlier version)? If so, what are the reasons? Maybe a little off topic, but I think it would be interesting to see what's going on with older Linux versions and how they are being used.
Slashdot Mirror
Now I'm gonna have to learn my compass backwards. Now South will be white and north will be black... or is it other way around... ummm... oops
I too see a lot of Apple stuff floating around on campus. I was surprised to find out how many Mac enthusiasts there are in the Computer Science student body. However, most of the profs are Microsoft thru and thru. Must be all that free software and kickbacks.
I just ordered an iBook last night and now they are dropping prices. What Luck!!! Fortunately they let me cancel my order and reorder. So now I get what I really wanted for the same price as before...
*happy*
Union Pacific has a jet powered locomotive. They used to have more, but they burn so much fuel that they aren't very economical to operate. Plus, you can't park them underneath overpasses because the exhaust will melt the asphalt. So they just have the one now and it is mainly used for special loads and public relations.
...and emacs did not install automatically.
That is because vi is the superior technology and it IS installed by default I bet.
There's nothing like a good vi vs. emacs flame war to keep people interested!
Amen brother! This chick never has anything good to say about the products she reviews. She nitpicks even the smallest details that most people would never even notice.
I am using SuSE 8.0 Personal Edition and I think it would be a very good distro for newbies. It detects everything automagically, even my USB camera. My only real gripe is the lack of good CD burning software included in the package. I hear this is fixed in 8.1 though.
And Amen also to the installer comments. My main problem with the Redhat installer is that it is linear and much harder to fix mistakes without having to start over.
I say to everyone, give SuSE a try. It's pretty damn cool, especially for newbies, and has a little something in it for everyone.
If I had mod points, I'd mod this up just for the sig.. Funniest sig ever.
I have a T-bird 1 GHz and 768MB of SDRAM. The ram is just overkill (but I got a good deal) and the T-bird was kinda high end when I bought it almost two years ago. I enjoy building computers, but I decided there's simply no reason to get the latest and greatest because my setup does everything I need it to do.
Also, I work for a computer manufacturer and I have noticed that most of the systems we build use the lowest or next to lowest processors we offer. So consumers are definately wising up.
I think we've reached a plateau in personal computer performance. The big thing now is internet bandwidth. I think that is where people are going to be putting their money in the next few years.
I believe most code is simply not commented properly. I have been trying for a while to teach myself to do some basic stuff in Python with little success. The main problem is that most code is poorly commented if it is commented at all. There is no telling how many times I've seen things like this:
# Now we tie up some loose ends
or
# I inserted this to fix a few things
No explaination is given as to what the code actually does or if it does explain, it doesn't tell specifically what is going on. I know that most programmers aren't writing comments for the sake of students trying to learn from their code, but I believe if they did so, things would be much clearer for everyone.
Having built the Inspiron (and Latitude) for a year, I know that you don't want to mess around too much under the hood of one of these things. If you improperly seat the video card, the pins on the connector can be bent very easily. Also, an improperly seated heatsink can cause literal meltdown (and a not too pleasant smell). And when you're putting it all back together, don't forget to plug the LCD back in :)
I have at least one Geology professor that uses Fortran. Although I'm completely unfamiliar with this language, it seems to serve his purposes very well. And so do the apps he writes because they still work 15+ years later. Plus, I can just get a copy of the source and use them at home on my Linux system with a minimum of fuss. Portability is a big plus in my opinion.
My mother is a Technology Coordinator at a local school system. This means she is in charge of researching and purchasing computer resources for the school. I've been campaigning for her to persuade the administration to switch from using Microsoft products to free Unix products. While it would certainly make economic sense to do this, there are two things standing in her way. 1: The school administration is fearful of anything that is not Microsoft. 2: There is little or no local support for Linux or BSD products. This means that there are no companies in her area that provide hands-on support for free software. My suggestion was that they could use the tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of dollars per year that they spend on MS taxes to hire a nerd full-time. I know that some school systems are beginning to do this, but at the school where my mother works, the administration won't hear of such a thing. They want a local company that can provide support, warranties, and guarantees. So my tax dollars continue to go towards making MS a bigger monopoly. Which leads me to another thought. Does anyone know how much money MS makes off the United States governments (Federal, State, and Local)??
I work in a manufacturing environment that requires the use of several pieces of software. I can open 3 Internet Explorers, 2 terminal emulators, and 1 label printing application before NT crashes and burns. I would be very happy to get some added RAM and CPU power.
Yes they did offer Linux. I used to work in Inspiron and Latitude Manufacturing and I'd see a Linux system once or twice a week when they were still offering it. I never saw any multiple orders for Linux systems from the same company, they were all single orders, probably for sys-admins or Redhat enthusiasts.
So let me see, that's 2 a week out of 10,000 systems that came through on my shift and there were 2 shifts so let's say 5 out of 20,000 to be safe. So 0.025% of the systems had Linux installed. Believe me, I was excited that Dell was offering Linux, even if it was Redhat. But I think I agree with sluggish sales as a valid reason. The numbers don't lie.
I tend to be looking for specific information. For a simple topic search I tend to use Yahoo!. Since I am looking for specific information when using Google, it is nothing for me to have to look through 5 to 10 pages of results before I find a site with the information I need. If someone is looking at a site based on the fact that it is near the top of the list, then they are a fool and deserve to be mislead by Google bombing.
My local CompUSA store doesn't bother to protect their Macs in any form or fashion. It's great for those of use who like to play around with the OS or search for info on products via the Internet, but maybe not great for them as this case proves. I've thought about screwing with settings and trying to crash their display models.. but I decided that that would just be mean.
I don't understand why this is a big deal. I mean, these guys gotta make money somehow. Besides, if you're going to a web site based on the fact that it was listed first by the search engine, then whatever you're researching probably isn't that important. And if I am looking for information on quantum mechanics and the search engine only lists links to chemistry sets at Wal-Mart, then I'm going to use another search engine. I think most people are smart enough to figure this sort of thing out.
If the price of the PC goes below $350 (yeah right), the the "Microsoft Tax" will still be included in the price. I work for a very large computer manufacturer and I'm sure they get Windows for our machines at a bulk price, but it is still a substantial part of the purchase price. The computer prices are falling (at least at my company), but they are also reducing margins per computer. It's call a price war and it was brought on by slumping PC sales. So computer companies are selling for less, but they are making less per computer and it has nothing to do with the price of components or whatnot, it's simply capitalism (competition) at its best. So as soon as demand goes back up, so will the prices and all Microsoft will know is that more units are being shipped and they are making more money. Being a monopoly, they can charge as much as they want and the middlemen (i.e. computer manufacturers) just have to deal with it.
What exactly is a chord keyset? To me it looked as if the gentleman was using it to issue commands. I wish that something similar had been introduced into the PC. I know that I find it hard to remember keyboard shortcuts. Having a separate tool for this that had 5 or 6 keys would make a great addition the the PC platform and would make it easier for me to remember which buttons to push. Or maybe I'm just crazy.
I haven't seen such gross misuse of /. since the other day when someone post a 2.5.x kernel update story.
Congrats.
I'm a soon to be former Comcast Online (used to be @Home) subscriber and they are charging me $70 a month including the modem rental fee. I said soon to be former because I find this price to be too much per month. Additionally, since they have switch over to the new service, everything is slower and tech support is non-exsistant. The actual monthly fee is supposed to be $39.99, but when you figure in modem rental, taxes, franchise fees, etc, etc, etc, the price ups to $70 a month. It's nice to have bandwidth, but not $70 nice.
I don't.
But usually i go looking for freeware or gpl stuff nowadays. I don't think I am using any shareware at this point. Just too much trouble and there are almost always free alternatives that are just as good or better.
I noticed on kernel.org that there are now listings for the 2.0.xx kernels (sorry if I'm behind the times, I don't check the site every day). Is anyone out there still using the 2.0.xx kernel (or earlier version)? If so, what are the reasons? Maybe a little off topic, but I think it would be interesting to see what's going on with older Linux versions and how they are being used.
Umm.. try Vectorlinux. It is small and has a distro 'optimized' for pre-Pentium processors.
what BeOS was all about? Doh!!